


If We Never Change, Then We Never Grow

by Ladderofyears



Series: Fictober 2019 [14]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drabble Sequence, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Getting Back Together, M/M, change
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-16 03:20:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21029399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladderofyears/pseuds/Ladderofyears
Summary: Change has always been a constant in the life of Draco Malfoy. A nine-drabble sequence.





	If We Never Change, Then We Never Grow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Papercutter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Papercutter/gifts).

> This is my fourteenth day of Fictober, and this story is based on the prompt: _ Change is annoyingly difficult._

**_1997: Sometimes change happens against our will._**  
Harry saved Draco long after the final battle. 

Saved Draco from a life of ignominy and disgrace. Harry had stood there, beside Draco in the Wizengamot. Testified to Draco’s youth, his ignorance. Draco had bristled with impotent fury at the words of his enemy, his fingers burning with unspent hexes. Draco had lived with his hatred since he was a child, and giving it up felt weak. Felt like the final humiliation. 

Draco shook Harry’s hand after his trial. Clasped the hand of the Saviour before walking out into the weak sunlight. Harry Potter had given Draco back a future. 

**_1998: You can change and not even realise. _**  
Draco hadn’t wanted to go back to Hogwarts. 

He’d entreated with Mother to send him to Beauxbatons, let him do a Potions Apprenticeship. Anything other that seeing Potter’s aggravating smirk everyday. “Face your demons,” Narcissa had said. “Otherwise they’ll eat you alive.”

Draco hadn’t agreed. Eighth Year was a vast chasm, waiting to be filled with every mortification. As he waited on the Platform every eye burnt into his too-thin skin. 

But Harry had stood beside him. “It’s hard for me too,” he said. “Going back. But we’ll get through the year, Draco. Together we can do this. I promise.”

**_1999: Sometimes change is annoyingly difficult. _**  
There’d been enough deceit in Draco’s nineteen years.

The path that Lucius had lain out for him, Manor custodian, husband and father to a future white-blond heir was naught but ashes. Draco refused to live a lie any longer. 

“I’m breaking off my betrothal. I’m sorry.” Draco said, holding her soft hand in his own. “The truth is, I've met somebody. Somebody that’s shown me the truth of who I am. There’ll be no marriage, Mother. No heir. I don’t know what the future holds for me, but I need to be honest. Live my own life, come what may.”

**_2003: And occasionally change is too hard to face. _**  
Harry had been in America two years when Draco received his letter. 

_“There hasn’t been anyone like you... Nobody that challenges me like you did Draco. Nobody that knows my heart. I know I said hurtful things when I left but I thought that I’d missed out on my youth. Thought that I needed to have an adventure on my own terms. Little did I know that everything I wanted was already in my arms.”_

Draco read the letter once more. With a twist of his wand the parchment smouldered and burnt. The heartbreak was still too raw and painful. 

**_2005: But change can force its way into your life. _**  
Draco was shopping on Diagon Alley when he spied Harry with another man. For a sickening moment the whole world seemed to slow down, his heart racing horribly fast in his chest. 

Draco dived into the nearest shop and watched as the pair passed by the mottled glass of the window. Harry looked blissful and bright, laughing at some unheard comment. 

It’s taken just one single second but Draco knows that he’s back at square one, as in love with Harry as he was during their brief affair. It’s too late now though, Draco thought bitterly. He’d lost Harry forever. 

**_2005: Change can be inevitable. _**  
“So you saw me walk down Diagon,” Harry laughed, motioning to the bartender to fill his glass, “and you decided I’d found my one true love?”

The Ministry Christmas Ball. Despite Draco’s every intention of hiding away, Harry had found him, cornered him. Made Draco admit exactly why he ignored Harry’s owls. “You’re a daft bloody git,” Harry continued, “I’m tired of chasing you. Tonight I want you to come home. Back to the only place you’ve ever truly belonged, which is by my side.”

Draco swallowed the last of his drink. Tonight, Draco decided, he’d make the brave choice. 

**_2006: Change needs a bit of a prompt sometimes. _**  
“We need to get behind our story,” Draco said, laying the _Prophet’s_ letter down on the table. “Tell the world about us. They’ll write what they want otherwise-”

“It’s none of their bloody business,” Harry countered obstinately. “It’s our choice, our relationship. For once in my life I want to have something of my own. I want you, Draco. We’ve wasted enough time-”

“Then we tell the world,” Draco replied, taking Harry’s hand. “Our friends, family._ The Prophet._ Tell them that we fell in love when we were eighteen, and we were foolhardy. Tell the we’ll never be parted again.”

**_2007: Sometimes you get the change you need. _**  
Draco signed away the Manor on a chilly Spring day. Harry and he wanted a new home to build their future in and lives untainted by echoes of the past. Mother had given him her blessing, and new owners were quickly found. 

Draco took a last walk though the rooms of his childhood, and thought sadly of the boy he had been. A child who’d never dreamt of finding love, but thought only of duty. A child resigned to hiding the truth of his heart. “Goodbye,” Draco murmurs, spelling the wards shut a final time. 

Harry was waiting for him. 

**_2009: Or a change you’ve wanted forever. _**  
Draco married Harry in the grounds of Hogwarts. He’d laughed at Harry’s cliched choice, but his lover had been insistent. “It’s where we met,” Harry had argued. “Where we fell in love.”

They wed under an Oak tree beside the Great Lake, on the ten-year anniversary of their first kiss. The bonds of magic twisted and coiled around Draco’s heart, and he felt the flicker and spark of their souls uniting. 

It didn’t matter what changes came in their future, Draco realised. Whatever challenges they had to face, Harry would be beside him. They completed each other, and would forever.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading xxxx


End file.
